The skies were colder and grayer than Lumine had ever seen them in Mondstadt, even in the dead of winter.

Several confused passengers filed out of the star-rail station beside them.

"This feels more like home than Mondstadt," Ajax muttered as he slipped an arm around Lumine's shoulders. "What's going on?"

"I don't know." Lumine looked up in time to see lightning flash and the shadow of a dragon soaring overhead. "It looks like geovishaps and Visions aren't the only things that have come back from the past."

She realized just then how nice it felt, with Ajax's arm around her shoulders. He hadn't been that bad of a passenger, albeit a hyperactive one. He clearly sought to be entertained often, but that resulted in him being very entertaining.

Between that and breakfast, Lumine was starting to realize that her initial description of him as an asshole had been regrettably incorrect.

He wasn't too bad to have around, honestly. And beyond their shared connection with the flashbacks, she felt like that they really clicked. The sense of camaraderie helped fill the pervasive loneliness that had haunted her ever since she was a child.

"We should hurry to the library then," Lumine added. She glanced around—the other travelers and the few passerby on the streets were hurrying to get within a shelter of some sort inside of the old stone walls of Mondstadt. "Come on, we're not too far from there."

They ascended a series of stairs and wound through the labyrinth of walls to the small castle where the Knights of Favonius had conducted their business for over a thousand years. No knights guarded the door today—there was likely a shortage. Still, the doors were open, so Lumine and Ajax slipped into the grand marble foyer and into the renown library.

Lumine had spent so much time in the library as a kid. Reading was one of the main ways to travel when her parents couldn't afford to and wouldn't let her. There was something quite cozy about the old library as the storm raged outside, with the soft candlelight accenting the shadows the new electric chandeliers could not reach.

At the desk beside the right door was a woman in her late twenties who was working with an elaborate-looking tea-cauldron.

"Oh, I didn't expect anyone to come in!" She looked up from her tea-cauldron, startled. She then squinted. "Especially you, Lumine! I thought you'd gone away—"

"I just came back for a visit, from the Academia at Liyue." Lumine glanced between the librarian and Ajax. "This is Miss Lisa, the librarian here."

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance." She shook Ajax's fingertips. "And who's your cutie?"

"Oh, this is Ajax, he's a friend I made at the Academia." She shot Ajax an apologetic glance, but he seemed to take her words into stride.

"It's lovely to meet you both, but I'm afraid you've picked a terrible day for a visit." Lisa picked up a teacup. "Things have been pretty strange lately, especially after last night. Not only have Visions returned, but it seems so has Stormterror. The library's closed for the time being, I'm afraid."

"Stormterror?" Lumine blinked. "You mean the dragon from—"

Her eyes darted to Ajax.

"A hundred years ago, isn't it?" He groaned. "Of course it is. It all is."

Lisa frowned. "What are you talking about?"

Lumine turned back to Lisa. "We need to see a copy of the Ballad of Ascension. I know you said the library is closed, but we need to see it—it might help us figure out everything that's going on."

Lisa opened her mouth, only to pause and tilt her head.

"I remember you," she whispered. "Not just from now, but. . ."

She sprang to her feet in a instance of uncharacteristic hurry. "I'll get you the book, right away—and there's a passage I think you need to see, right away."

With that, the librarian scurried off. That was when Lumine saw the Electro Vision hanging off of the slender belt around Lisa's waist.

"So the flashbacks, they're affecting those of us with Visions," Ajax muttered. "Or at least, those of us who got hit by our constellations."

"It seems like it." Lumine shoved her hands into her pockets. "And the flashbacks are all from a hundred years ago. Even Lisa knew me then."

The observation unsettled her.

"I wonder how many of us are out there." Ajax raised a hand to his chin. "I wonder why we're all here."

"And why now," Lumine added. "A hundred years ago was the Ascension of the twin gods. I wonder if they have something to do with all of this."

"Wouldn't surprise me if they did." Ajax shrugged. "I guess we'll find out, one way or another."

Lisa hurried up the stairs holding a thick old paperback with torn edges and several dog-eared pages. "I hope you don't mind me grabbing one of the more used copies, but I think there's one part that might be helpful to you."

She flipped open the worn copy of The Ballad of Ascension and paused toward a later section of the book.

Lumine recognized the selection instantly as she glanced across the page.

"The wedding of the Honorary Knight and the Harbinger Tartaglia," she whispered. "We used to read this in school during the Windblume."

"I've seen the records in the Church of Favonius," Lisa added as she pressed the book into Ajax's hands. "They have a record of the wedding. They never wrote down the true name of the Honorary Knight—but they did mention Tartaglia's true name."

"It was Ajax, wasn't it?" He looked down at the book, then at Lumine.

The Favonius Church was dark, only illuminated by the moon through the stained-glass windows and the dim candlelight. For the only time in her life, she wore a veil like snowflakes, a memento that had belonged to his mother.

He stood there, looking more like a handsome prince than the villain.

Barbara was in front of them, a bard in green and a gentleman in a suit of black and brown to the sides.

Their vows were whispered, a secret to the world and an oath to each other. A lovers' oath that would carry through time.

It was then that she knew she had crossed the precipice, that she had walked through her last doorway between worlds. Teyvat had become home, and she had a new family now.

The only sadness that marred it was that Aether would never see it.

"That means I was. . . " Lumine stopped herself. "Thank you, Miss Lisa."

"Of course." Lisa glanced over her shoulder. "I wish I could do more—but I'm in for it enough as it is with Jean if she hears about this."

Her green eyes were bright with worry. "Do you two cuties have a place to stay?"

"My parents shouldn't mind hosting us." Lumine checked her cellphone—it wouldn't be long before night fell. The day had gone so fast already.

"I'd like to meet them." Ajax closed the book. "If not, I'm sure we could stay at the Goth Hotel."

"Be careful out there." Lisa's expression was solemn, and Lumine had a feeling that she wasn't just talking about the storm or the dragon.


"The wind's picking up," Lumine muttered as she pulled her hood up. She could feel the wind through her blood now, tearing at her very essence. Her head was still spinning from the revelation Lisa had provided.

The Honorary Knight's name was never recorded. Mostly because she never spoke it before ascending to godhood. And yet in her most recent memory, she had married Ajax. Which meant that she had been the Honorary Knight. A god, by all records.

How had this happened?

"Are you okay?" Ajax had placed his arm around her shoulders again.

"I just don't know what to think about all of this." Lumine passed. "What do you think about all of this? I guess if the poem's right, that means you were a Harbinger."

"I can't say I ever really thought I'd be the bad guy." He was quiet as they continued down the street. "I guess at least it's Tartaglia, the one who turned out to be alright in the end."

"It's strange, isn't it?" Lumine slipped an arm around his back. "Our past selves were so. . . so grand, so important. And we're just ordinary college students. You're just some guy."

"You were never just any girl." Ajax met her eyes. "I knew that when I first saw you."

Lumine didn't know what to say to that.

And luckily, she didn't have to say anything, for they were at her parents' door. She rung the doorbell, and within seconds the door flew open.

"Lumine! Oh thank the Archons!" Lumine was broken away from Ajax by her mother's hug.

"Come inside, quickly!" Lumine stepped forward, only for the door to shut right behind her and a lock to click closed.

"Wait, Ajax, we can't leave him out there—"

Lumine broke free and whirled around only to see her father blocking the exit.

"Dad, what are you doing?"

"I don't know why you came back, but it's lucky you did." Her father looked nervously to her mother. "He made us promise he would keep you out of this, and now's our chance. . . "

"'He'?" Lumine raised an eyebrow. "Dad, who's 'he'? And besides, Ajax came with me, he's a friend, he has no place to go—"

Her father just shook his head. "I can't, I can't."

"We never should have let you go, you're safer here." Her mother took Lumine's hand. "Especially with all that's happened since you left. . ."

"No, I'm not staying!" Lumine wrenched her arm free. "What's gotten into you both? I don't understand!"

"You don't have to understand." Her father crossed his arms and took on a stern look. "But you aren't leaving this house. Not until the storm's over."

"Dad, you don't know what you're saying." It was easy to cup the gales into Lumine's hands. "Let me go. I don't want to hurt you."

Her father set his jaw. "I can't do that."

"Then I'm sorry."

With that, Lumine let the winds go, blowing the door open and pinning her father gently to the wall.

With that, Lumine sprinted out the door, to where Ajax was braving the full force of the winds to wait for her.

"Come on, we gotta go!" She grabbed his hand and started to run.

They had only just turned the corner, however, when they saw two young men standing in front of each other, with a stance threatening a fight.

One was dressed in green, with an old-fashioned cap, a vaguely androgynous appearance, and black braids that had been dyed blue at the tips.

The other was the boy that Lumine had seen at the star-rail, and that day at the Tyrant's Tower.

The boy from the star-rail turned to her.

"Ah, Lumine, I should've known you'd somehow get mixed up in all of this."

A name rose to her lips, one as old as her own, as old as the stars. "Aether?"